The company was founded in 1924 by Richard Simon and Max Schuster. Both Simon & Schuster and Pocket were sold to Gulf+Western (which later became Paramount Pictures) in 1975, and were incorporated into Viacom in 2002, becoming its publication arm.

Following the 2005 split between Viacom and CBS, Viacom became the CBS Corporation. The company still owns Simon & Schuster.

In 2000, Simon & Schuster became the first publisher to release an original work by a major author online as an eBook.